Ex Michigan Wolverine Rumeal Robinson Sentence to 6 1/2 Years in Jail

Before the Fab 5, the 1989 Michigan Wolverines had one of the most remarkable runs in NCAA Tournament history.

Head coach Bill Frieder decided to take a job at Arizona State and then athletic director Bo Schembechler told him not to bother showing up for the NCAA Tournament since he couldn’t wait on making the announcement. Bo was a “badass”, back in those days.

Assistant coach Steve Fisher took over and to be honest there were low expectations for the Wolverines even though they were a three seed.

But then Glen Rice started to heat up. You talk about a scoring machine, Rice was on fire the entire tournament. He holds the record for most point scored in a single NCAA Tournament.

Once they got to the Championship game they played an epic battle with Seton Hall that went into overtime. Rumeal Robinson was fouled with three seconds to go Michigan down 79-78.

Robinson was not a good free throw shooter around 65% for his career for Michigan and this was one of the most pressure pack situations I have ever witnessed. He calmly sank both free throws and Michigan won the title. He becomes a legend in the ranks of the Wolverines.

Fast forward more than twenty years later and Robinson is on his way to jail. Here are the details:

Rumeal Robinson, who led the University of Michigan to its only NCAA men’s basketball championship in 1989, received a 6½-year prison term Friday for bank bribery and wire fraud.

U.S. District Court judge Ronald Longstaff imposed the sentence as a result of Robinson’s Sept. 8 conviction for defrauding an Iowa Bank, where Robinson and a bank officer took out more than $1 million in loans supposedly to develop a resort in Jamaica

“Rumeal Robison (is) a manipulative and dishonest person who lived a lavish lifestyle in the mid-2000s at the expense of friends, relatives, strangers and an Iowa bank,” Stephen Locher, an assistant U.S. attorney, said in a government sentencing document.

“His fraudulent actions forced two people into bankruptcy, resulted in the eviction of his mother from the home where she had lived with foster children for more than 30 years and put Community State Bank at risk of losing more than $1 million.”

That is cold blooded on Robinson’s part. When you read the entire story it appears Robinson got off light considering the pain and suffering he put people through.

I was also shocked to learn that he managed to play nine years in the NBA, I can’t remember him doing anything of note in the NBA even though he played for six different teams.

He will be known for two things, the free throws and being a horrible human being.